Apologies for the delay in the short series on What's new in WPF 3.5 but I've been out of action working on a very cool project that you'll hopefully be hearing about soon. In the meantime, try this little tip.

If, like me, you prefer to hand craft your XAML (but you're not nuts enough to use Notepad) then you've probably found that Cider (the WPF designer built into Visual Studio) can sometimes get a little in the way.

Most of us have probably tried using the Visual Studio's XML editor for our XAML files but have yearned for Cider's intellisense which isn't available in the XML editor. If any of this rings a bell then you'll be pleased to hear that you can actually use the Source Code (Text) Editor for your XAML files which will give you all the syntax highlighting and intellisense you've enjoyed from Cider without the designer window.

Just right click on a .xaml file and choose 'Open With' which will presnet you with the dialog shown above. You can even change the default using the Set Default button. Happy days.

Sure, Cider has it's uses and I wouldn't discount it entirely but if all you want is some intellisense for in a Xaml editor then this is the way to go.